Passage through the Ages
by Spirit of Chrysophylax
Summary: John and Elizabeth, with the intention of exploring Atlantis, stumble across a mysterious room and become trapped in an Ancient time-machine. Is it a Janus experiment gone wrong? And will they ever make it back home? Season 1; pre-Sparky/Sparky. 6/?
1. The Beginning

**Passage through the Ages by Spirit of Chrysophylax**

**Author's Note: Story originally posted as **_**A Moment in Time**_** on penname Wormhole's account. This is the revised, renewed, and beta'd rewrite. **

_Chapter One: The Beginning_

John headed for Elizabeth's office to see if she was ready for the little excursion they had planned. She decided it was high time; she wanted to explore the city, needless to say, he jumped at the chance to show her around.

John walked into her office just as she was closing down her computer. "You ready?"

Elizabeth looked around to make sure everything was in order before reaching for her BDU vest on the back of the spare chair. She pulled it on. "As ready as I'll ever be."

"Rodney checked the areas we're heading into; he and his sensors assured me we shouldn't encounter any structural problems or flooding."

After straightening herself out, and having put the BDU vest on, she responded to John's information. "Better safe than sorry."

John maneuvered out the way to allow her access out the office. "After you."

----

It took five minutes, but eventually 'by hand' John and Elizabeth managed to open the door to a concealed room; the doorway was only noticeable by the dim lighting surrounding the corridor they were in.

"Stay here, let me see if it's safe."

Elizabeth didn't listen to John, and followed him in. "I'm not missing out on all the fun, Major."

John rolled his eyes, and suppressed the urge to argue the matter. "Okay, just stick close to me."

The lighting had come on automatically, the minute John walked in. The room was large; the only other difference compared to all the rest they discovered was the age to its design. It looked old and worn, as if it were a favorite of the Ancients.

Elizabeth pointed to something in front of them. "John, look at the back wall."

Nearing the wall, they could see two stone carved 'palm' motif panels embedded into it. Elizabeth rubbed the aged old dust from them and it became more noticeable that only two right hand prints showed. "No text explaining them."

John activated his earpiece to see if Rodney could find anything in the Ancient database that would explain them, but he only received static. Elizabeth tried hers, but she got the same response.

The sound of the door closing shut behind them startled them.

Quickly John ran over to it, but it didn't open on his command. "I don't like this – a minute ago that door wouldn't budge, and now we're locked in."

Elizabeth turned her attention back to the hand motif. "Maybe this will open…" Slowly she positioned her right hand over one of them.

John turned back round, the minute she pressed her hand against it, sliding the panel in as she did so. They waited to see if anything would happen, but nothing did. "Nope, it's definitely not an emergency switch for the door."

Disappointed, Elizabeth made to pull her hand away, but found she couldn't move it. She started to panic slightly. "John! I can't remove my hand."

John quickly returned to her position to help her loose, but even the combined effort didn't help.

Elizabeth indicated the one to her left. "Try the other one and see what that does."

John hesitated a bit; he didn't want them both to become stuck with no way out. He pulled up his sleeve and mirrored Elizabeth actions. That was the last thing he remembered before waking up with a face full of grass.


	2. War Games

**Passage through the Ages by Spirit of Chrysophylax**

_Chapter Two: War Games_

As John picked himself up of the ground, he heard a groan next to him. Looking down he saw the prone figure of Elizabeth Weir lying face down in the grass, as he had been. But something far louder than her groan suddenly echoed in his ears. The distinct sound off something in flight caught his attention; looking up at the sky he could soon see what looked like a Second World War Spitfire heading towards them. "You've got to be kidding me."

Without warning the Spitfire began shooting in their direction; the minute it was close enough to do so. "Shit," blurted John as it motivated him to get moving.

Elizabeth was just getting up from the ground, when she was suddenly propelled into run, as John pulled her forward and away from the onslaught of bullets.

The minute the Spitfire was on top of them, John threw himself at Elizabeth to protect her from the rapid fire; only his attempt was unsuccessful as a bullet hit her right arm; she let out a small cry of pain when they impacted the floor.

The plane soon flew overhead; over the tops of the trees they were aiming for and disappeared out of site.

John made to pull Elizabeth back up, not realizing she'd taken a hit. "Come on, we need to get moving in case the pilot decides to turn around and come back."

The pain on Elizabeth face said it all, following her gaze, and breathing as heavily as she was from the adrenaline rush, John bent back down and removed Elizabeth's left hand away from the gunshot wound. "Oh, crap."

"That bad, eh?" She asked a little sarcastically, gritting her teeth together.

John sat down and started rummaging through his BDU vest for some medical supplies. "I hope it's not anything we can't fix."

"Where are we John? What happened? This really doesn't – OW – look like Atlantis." She'd involuntarily jerked her injured arm.

John found what he was looking for and got to work on the wound. The first thing he did was pull the sleeve off from her jacket with one mighty tug so he could attend to it better, making Elizabeth wince a bit. "At this very moment, your guess is as good as mine. Truthfully though, from the markings on that plane I say we've been transported to Earth. _When,_ though, is another matter entirely."

"Time-travel? Is that was this is all about? And teleportation? Somehow it's a bit hard to believe the Ancients developed the tech to throw us millions of lightyears across the universe and through time with no obvious way of getting back."

John shrugged his shoulders not wanting to commit himself to the possible truth that she may be right. But it would explain the reason, why the room they found looked older than the rest.

Elizabeth had so many questions to ask John, if anything, talking about them helped keep her mind off the pain in her arm. "They were used in World War Two weren't they? Why would he be shooting at us?"

"He may have thought we were the enemy. I am carrying a gun after all – and a pretty modern one, at that. P-90s weren't around back then. Now, whatever."

Emptying some of the contents of the small canteen onto a cloth, John began cleaning the mess on Elizabeth's arm before applying any bandages. "It's just a surface scratch. It winged you as you fell didn't it?"

Elizabeth nodded to John's question as he motioned for her to take the cloth; she held it in place to stop the bleeding whilst he sorted out the dressing for the wound. At the same time she could tell he was listening out for anymore aircraft, which maybe approaching them, in case they needed to make a dash for cover. "Any ideas on how we get back?"

"Right now I'm more concerned about you. Getting us back is my second priority, though it's really close second."

"We're stuck aren't we?"

John tried to avoid eye contact, but he knew she could be right.

Elizabeth noticed John's eyes scan the vicinity when the sound of more planes could be heard. "Spitfires?"

John strained to identify it, his head cocked to one side. "No. No, the engine sound is different."

Quickly John gathered their things together and helped Elizabeth to her feet. "Come on, we need to find cover."

Just as they made it to the tree line, John turned round in time to see the planes come into view and he recognized them immediately, his eyes widened in horror, the color draining from his face. "Messerschmitts; German fighter planes."

Elizabeth saw at least six planes come into view. "Invading or pursuing?"

"Let's not hang around to find out." John pushed Elizabeth forward in an attempt to lose themselves in the forest.

**----**

Rodney slept in his quarters when the internal speakers woke him. "Doctor McKay, please report to the Control Room stat."

Rubbing the sleep from his eyes he looked at his watch to see what time it was. It read 2200 hours. "Can't a guy as important as me get some sleep around here?" he moaned, getting dressed before heading out to see what the problem that required his attention so urgently was, that it couldn't wait till morning.

**----**

Eventfully John and Elizabeth stopped running in amongst the trees, once they knew they were safe from the fighter planes.

Leaning against a tree, Elizabeth slid down to the ground to catch her breath, still keeping hold of the wounded arm, which throbbed uncontrollably. "Do you think they saw us?" The minute she finished her sentence an explosion sounded in the distance, making them both jump in the process.

John's voice overlapped the high flames left behind from it. "Elizabeth, listen to me, this is important – should we ever get separated, we _will_ meet back here. Okay?"

"Where's here?"

"That's the first thing we need to find out. At first I thought we might be in England, but I think, after seeing those planes, it could be Germany."

"So the other pilot probably shot at us, thinking we were Germans."

"Exactly."

**----**

The smell of the fire set Elizabeth's heart racing as they got nearer to the wreckage of the Spitfire. John wanted to check it out; he needed something to confirm their location.

Unknown to them, the pilot had ejected from the aircraft and began following them the minute he spotted them. Some form of documents was kept close to his chest as he reached for his side-pistol.

The sound of a trigger-catch from that pistol alerted John to the man's presence. He quickly spun round and aimed his P-90 at him, covering Elizabeth as he did so. The minute John saw who it was; he lowered his weapon and raised his hand as a gesture of surrender. "We're on your side."

Relieved, the man lowered his gun, but couldn't keep his balance due to the injuries sustained in the crash and collapsed onto the ground, dropping the papers as he did so.

John held Elizabeth back when she was going to run to his side and help him; and warned her of the consequences. "We can't interfere Elizabeth."

"But. He needs our help…" before John could interrupt she finished her sentence, "and he might be able to tell us where we are."

Elizabeth pulled her arm free, despite John's disproval and moved forward to help the man. He didn't say much, when she reached him, just shoved what papers he could reach from the floor into her hands. "Please, get these back to England."

Shocked Elizabeth grabbed them and was about to ask the man what country they were in when he slipped into unconsciousness.

John was by her side at that point and looked to see what she was holding. "What did he say?" She handed him the papers. "Not much – just gave me these."

John unfolded the documents and saw what looked like invasion plans. It was then he realized that just by being here they may well have turned the tide in the war. "We stopped him getting these back to England."

"What are they?"

"Invasion plans. He must have been escaping with them and by shooting at us we slowed him down in time for the German fighters to catch up to him." John picked up the remainder of the documents.

"So we have interfered."

"Without these, England will be left defenseless, and it won't be known as The Battle of Britain, but the Conquest of Britain."

"You know the year and where we are then?" asked Elizabeth as John folded the papers back up.

"Germany 1939, towards the end of 1939 looking at these."

The sound of dogs barking and the shouts from German soldiers soon echoed around the forest. Elizabeth and John looked at each other. "We're not going to out run them together. Go. I'll hold them off one of us needs to get back to England with these papers, it'll be best if it was you."

"I can't leave you here, Elizabeth."

"You've got to, I can probably talk my way out of it, so go."

"You can speak German?"

"Enough to rival Daniel Jackson, but go on and go, we're wasting time!"

Without thinking what he was doing, John quickly pulled her into a hug and whispered in her ear. "Be safe."

"You too."

"I'll come back for you. I promise."

Elizabeth smiled at him one last time as he made a hasty retreat away from the hounds and whispered silently. "You better."

Elizabeth looked at the wounded soldier as she waited for the inevitable. The German guards soon surrounded her, weapons raised.

One soldier indicated to another to continue searching the forest, Elizabeth was about to explain her presence when all of a sudden her world went black, when the butt of a gun connected with the side of her face.

Having run for what felt like ages, John eventually stopped to catch his breath when he could no longer hear the barks and the shouts from his pursuers.

He closed his eyes tight and bent over to take deep breaths, his mind went back from when he left Elizabeth, and he knew he shouldn't have. "Damn it." Looking back from the way he'd come, to the way he was heading, he screwed the documents up in his hands as tightly as possible to vent his anger.

As he did so, something caught his attention. "What have we here?" Unfolding them again he took a look at the dates on the back of the documents. The page he read previously said 1939 – the rest said 2939 and on all of them similar drawings of the first. "Fakes, oh nice one John. Just damn perfect." Without a second thought, he rushed back the way he had come.

**----**

Elizabeth woke up to freezing temperatures and found there was nothing but snow beneath her. Feeling her forehead from where she was hit on the head, she slowly sat up and took in her surroundings.

It was nighttime; with stars shining down, and the snow stretched as far as the eye could see. Elizabeth hoped she wasn't hallucinating. The last thing she remembered was being in a forest surrounded by a load of soldiers and John had gone straight to England to hand them the secret documents of the German Invasion plans. It was then she realized he was nowhere in sight; this in turn made her stand up and call his name.

**----**

"Elizabeeeeeeeth!" yelled John, when he suddenly found himself in the middle of nowhere surrounded by snow. "Elizabeeeeeeth!"

**----**

"John!" By now Elizabeth had wrapped her arms around herself to keep warm. It was times like these she wish she could use a life-signs detector. She just hoped John would find her using his.

**----**

John had pulled out the life-signs detector, only to find it was broken. Most probably in the fall from the Spitfire chase. "Damn it," cursed John as he tried to get it working. "Elizabeeeeeeth!"

**----**

The ground beneath both their feet began shaking and in both situations their eyes widened.

**----**

John once again yelled, only this time he yelled out against the noise. He knew she couldn't be far, providing they kept the same distance from their last known position. "Elizabeeeeeth!"

In the distance, Elizabeth could hear John's voice and quickly called back, running in the direction she heard it from. "John, I'm here!"

The shaking ground didn't help with keeping their balance, as both moved towards each other's voices. Soon they spotted each other in the distance.

John quickly took hold of Elizabeth's hand when the ground became more violent. "Thank God, you're not hurt."

"Do you know what's going on?" asked Elizabeth as she moved into John's protective embrace.

Truthfully John had absolutely no idea. "Earthquake?"

"No, I mean the sudden change in location. The papers, you were going…"

John cut her off in mid sentence. "I don't know what's going on, but I do know they where fakes, the other pages from the one I read had the date 2939 printed on the back."

"2939?" She asked, totally confused. "If that was then, when is now?"

The ground beneath their feet began to slide apart. John and Elizabeth quickly locked eyes with each other before it completely gave way.


	3. Come into my Parlor

**Passage through the Ages by Spirit of Chrysophylax**

**Author's Note: References to **_**Lord of the Rings**_** and **_**Harry Potter**_**.**

_Chapter Three: Come into my Parlor_

Dazed and totally confused by the whole situation, Elizabeth untangled herself from John, whom had broken her fall. She looked around when she could feel the ground was slippery and found they were in a deep, open-spaced icy cavern, with various tunnels leading in all directions.

Concerned that her friend may be hurt from what felt and looked like a kilometer drop, Elizabeth tried to rouse him. "John. John, wake up." She was surprised either of them survived the fall despite the soft landing she had.

The feel of cold hands against his cheek brought him back into consciousness. Opening his eyes, he could see Elizabeth's rose-colored cheeks brought on by the cold conditions and the sparkling green eyes staring down at him. "I've died and gone to heaven?" He teased, knowing full well he hadn't.

Elizabeth could help but provide her pleasantry smile. "Are you okay? You're not hurt at all?"

John checked himself over "No. I just knocked myself out in the fall." Relieved, Elizabeth pulled him up into a sitting position as he continued talking. "What about you? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

John took in his surroundings. "Now, where are we?"

"In an underground cavern, with no obvious way out." She indicated the myriad of tunnel entrances.

"If there was a way in, I'm sure they'll be a way out."

Elizabeth motioned to John to look up. "You sure about that?"

John followed her gaze and saw just how far they'd fallen. A deep slope slid down from the entry point; he guessed they must've landed on it a fair way up and slipped down.

John looked at her injured arm. He knew he could probably climb back up, but Elizabeth, on the other hand... "I take it there's no chance of us taking the slope back up?"

Elizabeth shook her head, feeling a little guilty about the whole situation. Knowing for sure he could make it, even if she couldn't. But by the look on his face, he wouldn't leave her this time. "Even if we do get out, where do we go next? We haven't got a clue where we are, let alone what exactly is happening to us."

John pulled out the documents he'd stuffed away in his pockets from their last misadventure. "More to the point. What were a Spitfire and a Messerschmitt doing in 2939? You'd think they'd be out of commission long before then?" He felt like an idiot just saying it – the planes wouldn't just be out of commission, they'd be a thousand years turned to dust. He saved his pride by not mentioning this to the expedition leader.

Elizabeth peered over at the documents he was holding. "Are you sure all those papers fake? The pilot seemed so sincere about us getting them to England."

Until now, John hadn't a chance to take a real close look at the plans and within minutes he started laughing. Elizabeth, however, couldn't see the funny side of it. "What's so funny?"

John held the A3 piece of paper in front of her face and indicated the 1939 date and she shrugged her shoulders, not seeing the point. "It's not a date, but a game score. Look at the markings on the maps."

"I'm sorry, computers and videogames aren't my thing."

"Entry levels, all of which are numbered. We must've entered the playing field at the last checkpoint."

"Glad you find that so funny. You weren't the one who was shot or beaten up."

John's smile disappeared, his demeanor sobering. "I'm sorry, you're right, I shouldn't laugh. I guess in the year 2939 they have no need for computer games, only live action games."

"If there's a chance we're jumping through time, let's hope we don't enter the real World War Two."

John got up of the floor, slipping a little as he did so, but quickly regained his balance. "Come on, we'll warm up a bit if we walk."

They left the papers discarded on the floor. Carefully John and Elizabeth walked towards a tunnel opposite to where they landed.

**----**

They walked for miles, before John started to get bored and began whistling the first tune the popped into his mind, which happened to be _The Great Escape_ theme, one Elizabeth recognized and she elbowed him in the ribs with her good arm. "What?" He asked innocently.

"You want the roof to come down on us?"

John decided not to push the matter, and closed his mouth. But that only lasted a few seconds when a thought struck him "Hey, if, as you say, we're jumping through time, you know what would be a really good place to end up in?"

"I have a feeling you're going to tell me."

John grinned; he was about to say when he heard a noise, which sounded like the scuffling of feet. He put a finger to his lips for silence and listened more closely. Suddenly John felt horridly like Frodo Baggins, and held his breath as to keep from cursing.

Near the bend up ahead out of their sites, a large shadow of a spider appeared.

"I _hate_ insects," he whispered violently, lifting his P-90 at the shadow. Turning the safety off, he turned to face Elizabeth. "When I say 'run,' head back the way we came as _fast_ as you can. I'll have one helluva time bringing it down in this enclosed space."

The creature edged further forwards and soon, John and Elizabeth could see its solid form. Its big brown spiky body slowly inched towards them as it sized up its pray.

The minute it hissed, John yelled at Elizabeth. "RUN!"

With the snow crunching beneath their feet, they ran back as fast as they could to the cavern. The spider gathered speed and chased after them.

Elizabeth looked back to see it gaining on them, John sprinting behind her. "We're not going to make it!"

"Just keep running. Whatever happens, don't stop!"

John knew the spider was almost on top of them. Risking a cave-in, he turned round a let a few rounds from his gun. The spider quickly inched back to avoid being hit and it lashed out a leg in the gun's direction. But John was able to snap it back before what looked like Shelob's twin could knock it from his grasp and he continued to run forwards.

John noticed Elizabeth had fallen in the snow and was struggling to stand back up. The injured arm wasn't helping. Rushing forward to help, John grabbed her left arm and pulled her back into a run.

Their pause gave the Acromantula enough time to run a claw along John's back, tearing through his clothes and scratching his skin. He screamed out and arched his back.

Panic-stricken Elizabeth helped him to regain his composure; John tried to push her on, but she refused to budge. It was too late anyway, the spider had gained the upper hand (well, leg), and using the roof as a pass point it positioned itself in front of them.

A web suddenly shot out from its spinneret and it caught Elizabeth in the face. Screaming in a pain from its sting, she let go of John to wipe it straight off with her hands, which had proven to be a mistake, as they now stung too and she wiped them on her clothes.

This angered John. He aimed his gun once again, and shot wildly at the creature that was almost twice his size.

With its legs flaying about, it eventually managed to knock the gun from John's grasp, having sliced through the strap. Despite the several dozen hits it took it still stood.

Positioning himself in front of Elizabeth, John pulled out his knife from its stealth and challenged it. "Come on then, you overgrown Aragog."

The sound of another spider behind them caught their attention and he moved Elizabeth up against the wall of the cave so he could keep a close eye on both of them.

John could see his gun a few feet in front of them. He could see the waving of her hands as she constantly tried to remove the webbing from her face; he risked a glance to check. "It's all gone."

"It still stings."

The spiders slowly moved closer towards them, John decided to risk it and pulled out a grenade.

With her back against the wall; and John's had his against her, for protection. Elizabeth could see what he had reached for and tugged on his shoulders. "You sure that's wise?"

John bent his head towards her and silently whispered back. "You got a better idea?"

Elizabeth didn't have time to answer, because the forward spider decided to rush them. John quickly pulled the pin from the grenade and threw it at the spider and quickly pulled Elizabeth to the ground covering her as it went off; snow piled down on top of them as it did.

Elizabeth woke up to freezing temperatures that were sure to be several degrees colder than what she felt previously. Looking around as best she could, she could see she was trapped by several inches of snow and ice. But that wasn't what scared her; it was the fact she could not, in her desperation, find John.

Elizabeth tried to pull herself out from the mountain of snow, but was unsuccessful on the first attempt. The second proved more so and she wriggled herself free. She felt grateful that the snow hadn't completely engulfed her, otherwise she would have suffocated for sure.

She was certain John wasn't caught up in it, because he would've been on top of her had he been. She could see the grenade had killed one spider, but the other was nowhere to be seen; it didn't take long to put two and two together.

Looking around Elizabeth spotted a trail of blood leading further into the tunnel. She didn't have to guess whose it was. Her gut twisted with the dread that her military leader was severely injured or dead at worst. She saw John's gun poking out from under the snow; she retrieved it and turned the safety back on. She only wanted the light – and hoped she'd have the good fortune to keep the bullets in the magazine.

She made her way deeper into the tunnel, being ever so cautious that the remaining spider didn't pounce on her unexpectedly.

Spider webs soon started to show as Elizabeth walked further in, a good bet that she headed in the right direction. But the deeper she got they were becoming more and more present; using the tip of the gun she dispersed them, being careful not to come into contact with them considering her last experience.

Elizabeth soon came to a dead end, when a wall of webs blocked her way. She desperately wanted to call John's name to see if he was near, but it could bring the spider running; it was probably his whistling that attracted their attention in the first place.

Elizabeth tried her radio, but as suspected the frequency was out of synch and needed to be adjusted, because all she received was static; she made it a point to remind John about them, when she found him, if she found him; she shook the thought from her mind.

There was no guarantee how much time John had left before he became the spider's dinner. She knew she didn't have time to start searching every other tunnel. "Oh, to hell with it." Covering her face she pushed her way through the cobwebs, ignoring the searing pain as it rubbed against her bare skin.

Reaching the end of the tunnel, Elizabeth found herself in a wider part of the cave system. Her hunch had proven correct; there suspended in the centre of the room, and cocooned from shoulders to toes in the middle of a spider web was Major John Sheppard. She had a sudden, unbidden image of Frodo all wrapped up after Shelob had finished with him. She set her mind quite opposite of Samwise's – she would not, under any circumstances, believe John dead before she could really know for sure.

Relief flooded through her, knowing she had found him. Getting him down, though, was going to be a problem. He was suspended over 'what appeared to be' a bottomless chasm and the lone spider stood by the edge of it. Probably building up an appetite before eating its dinner.

Elizabeth noticed the spider lacked one of its eight legs, and she could see it on the ground at the opposite side of the chasm, and next to that was John's long-bladed hunting knife. At least she knew he didn't go down without a fight. It would explain why the spider didn't come back for her in a hurry.

A light whistle woke John out his sleep; he needed to conserve energy even though it was warm. The webbing compressed almost painfully against his chest.

The noise came again, but it echoed around the small cave and John couldn't pin point it; he could see it had attracted the spider, it made its way forward towards the entrance to the tunnel, and he followed its gaze and could see what it saw. "Elizabeth. Elizabeth, shoot it."

Fumbling with the gun, and keeping an eye on the ice-cave version of Aragog's brother, Elizabeth tried to turn the safety catch off – only to find it jammed. "Not now, please." Her heart rate quickened when the spider took the opportunity to speed its pace.

Temporarily conceding defeat with the gun Elizabeth unceremoniously dived out the way of the oncoming spider, incidentally dropping the P-90 in the process.

The spider didn't miss a beat from the unexpected move as it scurried up the icy rock-face and continued with its relentless advance.

Elizabeth re-spotted the knife glistening in the snow and took the opportunity to run over to reach it. Skidding a little on the way because the rush, she involuntarily gave the spider a little time to play catch-up as it used the rock face to pick up more speed.

She could hear John continuously yelling her name in fear for her safety whenever she was in immediate danger from the spider.

Reaching the knife Elizabeth grabbed it with her right hand and turned to face the approaching spider, which rounded on her, her back now facing the edge of the chasm.

With each approaching step from the spider, Elizabeth moved that little bit further back, when suddenly her left foot slipped a little; she quickly leveled it out and took the risk to look behind herself; seeing the long drop below she quickly tensed up and turned back to face the spider whom had jumped towards her when her back was turned for that second.

Without hesitating Elizabeth once again dived out the way, only this time to the side. With no support due a failed shoot of a web, the spider flew over and fell down the big hole, screeching a deathless noise as it fell into the darkness below.

Elizabeth stayed 'back to the snow' where she was for a few minutes as she contemplated what had just taken place – how she nearly became the spiders second catch of the day. It was John who snapped her out of it. "Hey, don't leave me hanging." Even in a life-or-death situation he couldn't help the pun.

Elizabeth didn't bother to move as she tried to catch her breath, and ignored his attempt at a joke. She couldn't laugh, besides. "Tell me how to get you down, and I'll be happy to provide assistance the minute my head stops spinning."

John easily took her point. "Maybe it's best if we wait…"

**----**

They'd been so caught up in the spider attack that John only just noticed the cut on Elizabeth's face had gone. It wasn't till she had cut him free of the cocoon with his knife after they'd arrived in another location, did he reach forward for a closer look, taking her chin in his hand. "Let me see your face."

"What... What's wrong with it?"

"That's just it, nothing, the cuts are gone."

Elizabeth's hand automatically reached for the area it had been above her right eye. "What...it can't have..."

"Trust me, it's gone. Come to think of it…" John could no long feel his back hurting from the spider's claw attack and he reached an arm over to try and feel it, not quite reaching it. "Check my back for me. could you?"

He turned round so Elizabeth could see, she removed the remaining webbing on his back for a closer look, but could see no sign of a scratch. "Just torn clothes. But how is that possible?" She quickly removed the bandage on her arm, and the result was the same.

"I can only guess the webbing must've had some healing properties in it. Would explain why it stung so much on contact."

"If that's the case, we can't have been on Earth," pondered Elizabeth. "I don't know about you, but I don't know of any spider web that has healing properties in it. Though Dr. Beckett would probably jump at the chance to study it."

"Spiders that size just shouldn't exist, except in books or movies." Standing up and straightening himself out, John offered Elizabeth a hand to pull her up of the sand. "Come on, let's go see where we are now. I can see a stone building in the distance."

After a few hours of walking along an open desert, they soon came to the well-fortified building that closely resembled as a castle. Curiosity piqued, John and Elizabeth looked at each other before continuing towards it.

It wasn't long before they could hear cries of war in the distance; spinning to face it, they could see thousands of men running at them with swords and spears in their hands.

John sighed. "Why do we always end up in the thick of it?" John was about to grab Elizabeth's hand to run for it, but she'd already beaten him to the punch. They sprinted towards the building, away from the mass mob of angry men with swords.

A few spears where thrown at them by the time they reached the large wooden door, just as it was closing. "Wait, let us in!" yelled John to a fully armed soldier; they picked up pace once he could see they were waiting for them.

The minute they were through, the doors closed and John and Elizabeth paused to catch their breath.

"Who are you people?" Asked the guard in a language John clearly didn't understand. Elizabeth's eyes widened and she stared at him. "Don't you know it's dangerous to be on the outside of these walls?"

After collecting her wits and deciding the truth would be their best bet, she replied, "I am Elizabeth, this is John. We come from Atlantis. Where are we?" Elizabeth asked in the same language, making John to turn and stare at her.

"What fool travels along these sands and does not know where he is? This is Sparta!" He seemed to ignore the fact they came from an apparently sunken city.

Elizabeth's face grew pallid and white, and she suddenly understood the mass of war-whooping men behind the massive door. She turned to John. "John, we're in Sparta – Greece."

"You speak Greek?"

"College – plus aren't I a diplomat? That we're in Sparta is not the problem." She turned back to the soldier, and translated what he told her, and John too turned pale.

"We are preparing for war against the Trojans."

----

_A/N:_ Itty bitty reference to _300_. All you who've seen it know where it is.


	4. Troy

**Passage through the Ages by Spirit of Chrysophylax**

**Author's Note: As part of the beta process the original plotline of this chapter has been altered dramatically. This is a completely new adaptation of the original story by Wormhole. Enjoy!**

_Chapter Four: Troy_

John attracted Elizabeth's attention so not to arouse suspicion from the guard. "Do you know anything about this time?"

Elizabeth caught the wave of John's hand and the question pointed to her. "There was a Trojan war over a person named Helen…"

The guard who let them in overheard the name that transcended lingual barriers and interrupted them. "Helen? You know of Helen?"

Elizabeth quickly turned to face the man. "Of course I know _of_ Helen, who doesn't?"

"The king would like to know all that you do of his wife, Elizabeth," the guard stated in Greek. "Tell me, do you know her whereabouts? Or anything of her abductor? Paris?"

The diplomat paused for a moment, closing her eyes briefly in thought. John stood by her side, an expression of curiosity and concern etched on his face. "Elizabeth? If it helps, I think Paris and Helen reached Troy within three days. Ask how long has passed since her abduction."

"Sir, how many days have passed since the ruffian took your queen?" She ignored the look of amusement on John's face as he mouthed, 'ruffian?' her way.

The guard stood firm. "Four nights."

Elizabeth tossed her hands up. "I'm afraid they're probably in Troy by now. What can we do to help defend against the Trojans?"

"Begin by going before the king. Any information you retain about his wife and her captor will be well rewarded. Perhaps he shall even offer your friend Hermione's hand in marriage," he said, gesturing to the Air Force Major. One of the guard's eyebrows went towards the sky as he sized up John.

John glanced between the guard and the diplomat. "Excuse me?"

"The daughter of Helen and Menelaus, John. He thinks Menelaus will let you marry her if we tell them the history of the abduction." she whispered to him in English.

John turned to fully face her. "You can't be serious!"

"He is. Oh, and I'd be a little more cautious. Hermione's only supposed to be about nine years old right now."

Her military companion turned a light shade of green. "Okay, now I'm starting to wonder if I should've left my wedding ring on..."

"It probably wouldn't have helped. They have no idea what a wedding ring is."

As the guard began to lead them towards the large building several hundred feet away, John moaned, "Oh, kill me now..."

Elizabeth ignored him and followed the guard into the main building. "Dr. Jackson would kill to see this," she commented quietly, in awe of the simple royal decorations adorning the sides of the hall. At the end of the massive corridor she saw a large stone throne, with a man who could be no other than Menelaus seated in it.

"King, I present Elizabeth and John of Atlantis, who come with information of Helen and the tramp, Paris." The guard bowed and backed away to stand against the wall.

Menelaus stood as soon as the mention of Helen was made. Greek or not, John could tell this guy was worried. "What news bring you of my wife?"

Elizabeth glanced at John. "I'm afraid she and Paris are already in Troy."

Menelaus looked at her suspiciously. "How do you know this? Are you not a spy for Paris himself?"

The diplomat decided to play along with legend. "Atlanteans know all, King. Have you not met others like us?"

The Spartan king's gaze softened only slightly. "You are the first, although I have heard stories of your kind and did not believe in their powers."

"You believe in Zeus, Hermes, Aphrodite, Persephone, Hades, Poseidon, Athena and gods of their stature, do you not?"

Menelaus sat back down on his throne. "They possess such powers of omnipotence, as you claim to."

"Yes."

John had no idea what the two were conversing about, and he let his eyes wander. They landed on a small form, a child partially hidden behind a stone column a few feet away from him. He had a horrible feeling in his gut that this was Hermione. He looked back at Elizabeth.

"Elizabeth, let's just hope that getting out of here will be easier than getting out of Shelob's lair. I don't want to marry a nine-year-old." The two exchanged a glance before Elizabeth turned back to Menelaus.

----

Back in the real, "modern" Atlantis, Rodney stalked up to the technician who had called him on the radio. "What's so urgent that couldn't wait till morning?" he growled.

The technician acknowledged his presence and pointed to Doctor Weir's office. "Sergeant Bates wishes to talk to you, Doctor. It seems Major Sheppard and Doctor Weir have gone missing."

Rodney's face turned from grumpy to seriously concerned in an instant.

----

"King Menelaus," Elizabeth continued, ignoring John at her elbow. "Paris's abduction of Helen sparked this war."

"That seems obvious," he replied icily, reminding the diplomat of her head scientist back on Atlantis.

"Many will die. In fact, you will wage war against the Trojans for ten years before ingeniously defeating them."

At this she caught Menelaus's attention. "Surely you cannot know the future to that extent! Only the Oracle of Delphi can tell such predictions! Unless...unless the tales are true. Atlanteans _are_ a supreme race..." His gaze suddenly became wild. "Such supremacy _must_ be given to my family!"

Elizabeth let out a sigh. "I apologize, King, but my companion is not inclined to marry your daughter."

"For what reason? Such an honor is hardly something he should refuse. Imagine the rewards of becoming part of the royal Spartan family! He could have more than simply my daughter. Concubines more than he can count."

Elizabeth grimaced. "If he could speak your language I'm sure he would find that an enticing offer, but there is one other thing I haven't mentioned as of yet."

Menelaus eyed her. "Name it."

"He is unavailable. Mine, in fact. It would be unwise to force him against his will." Elizabeth sidestepped protectively in front of John, who was by now so hopeless without the diplomat in understanding any of the goings on.

Menelaus's eyes narrowed. "You are in no place to make demands, Elizabeth of Atlantis."

She stood her ground. "And the Trojans are at your doorstep. Make your choice."

John tapped her on the shoulder. "Shouldn't we try not to interfere in the historical timeline?"

She whispered back to him, "I have the feeling that this isn't the real timeline. Remember the live action video game thing in Germany? And what about those giant spiders? What if we're just in the Atlantis database?"

He looked at her pointedly. "Have you lost your mind?"

"Not the time, John. King concubine over there is head over heels for you to marry his daughter. He wants the superior Atlantean blood in his line."

"Elizabeth, what did you tell him?" Automatically John's hand went to the knife still strapped to his hip, but he didn't unsheathe it.

She sighed again. "That as Atlanteans we're omnipotent like the gods he believes in..."

John cursed under his breath.

"And that you won't marry his daughter becauseyoubelongtome." She spat out the last part as fast as she could, hoping it would take him more than a few moments to decipher it.

His eyes widened. "Elizabeth!"

"I'm saving your life! Think of it as compensation for all the times you're going to save my life." Her eyes silenced him and she turned back to the king of Sparta. "Make your choice."

Menelaus snapped his fingers and the guard who escorted them in began to move towards them.

"Elizabeth..." John drew out, hand still hovering over his knife sheath. "I've got my knife."

"Don't, John." She switched to Greek again. "You have no quarrel with us. We gave you what you asked for: information. You have a war to fight with the Trojans, not with Atlantis. You do not want to spark a war with omnipotent beings! It would be like declaring war on Zeus."

Menelaus held up his hand and the guard stopped. "War on Zeus is only wise with help from the Titans."

Elizabeth had a sudden flashback to her home on Earth, sitting in front of the TV with _Remember the Titans_ playing on it. She shook it off. "Who are your Titans, then?"

"Liz, I don't like the look in his eye. When I say, run for it. The nearest exit. We'll side with the Trojans if we have to."

The king stood slowly. "As far as you are concerned, Elizabeth of Atlantis, we are the Titans."

Knowing danger when he saw it, John swiftly unsheathed his knife, bellowing "RUN!" Elizabeth and the military leader bolted from the hall, outrunning the guard and the closely-following Menelaus. The king had a sword in his hand. Elizabeth paled.

Outside, the noise gave away that the Trojans were scaling the outside wall, being fought off by Spartan warriors who stood their ground.

John and Elizabeth started up a flight of stairs outside the main hall, Menelaus and the first guard in hot pursuit. Neither seemed to acknowledge the sounds of battle, which furthered Elizabeth's belief that they were not in the original timeline.

A guard that John had missed at the top of the stairs readied his sword to stop them.

"Who in the Underworld are you?" he demanded, and John looked at Elizabeth for translation.

"Atlanteans with no intention of harming you," she shot back, scrabbling to get her own knife out to ward off the approaching Spartan king. "John!"

John inched up the staircase, almost to the top. "Get behind me, Liz."

Elizabeth tugged the back of John's BDU when the king and the first guard were right behind her. "JOHN!"

The Air Force Major heard the feeble clash of military issue blade on hardened sword steel and turned to find Menelaus with Elizabeth in a throat lock, his sword's point resting on her collarbone. Reluctantly, Elizabeth translated the king's words. "Drop your blade, John of Atlantis, or her lifeblood will forever stain my stronghold."

----

After the short debriefing from Bates, Rodney, Zelenka and a few scientists made their way to John and Elizabeth's last known last known position, having traced it with the help of the city's sensors. No sign of them. Zelenka almost stepped into the room to find out what happened to them when Rodney laid a hand onto his shoulder. "Wait."

The room was one of a handful in the lower levels in the west wing that John and Elizabeth were exploring; it faced the outside wall of the tower.

Rodney received a transmission from the Control Room of a lightning storm directly overhead. Rodney ordered the shield to be raised to be on the safe side.

Just before the shield went up a lightning bolt broke through the wall of the tower, but disappeared before it hit the room. With confusion written across their faces, Rodney and Zelenka looked at each other for an answer as to what just happened.

-----

The standoff on top of the main hall continued. John held his knife tight, not giving in to Menelaus's demands; even though his threat was real enough, John couldn't believe he would execute it. "What, and risk war with the Atlanteans?" Elizabeth translated for the king.

For good measure she added, "Zeus would strike you down if you harm me."

Menelaus pulled Elizabeth back a little. "I'd like to see him try." Still with his arm locked around her neck he held the sword high, in apparent triumph.

As if on command a lightning bolt appeared from nowhere out of the clear blue sky and struck Menelaus's sword, causing him to drop it.

Seizing her chance Elizabeth pulled free from his grasp and scrambled towards John's protection and asked the one question he was wondering. "What just happened?"

John took a moment to think about it. _Really? Nah. _He shrugged his shoulders in response to her question and shook his head so not to believing what he just saw. He looked at her. "Never mess with Atlanteans?" he said hopefully.

Seething over having been beaten, Menelaus rubbed his right hand, noticing the overbearing silence around them. The battle below had stopped. He looked down and saw everyone staring at them; they had all witnessed the strike.

But before anyone decided on their next cause of action, they all witnessed John and Elizabeth disappear before their very eyes.

-----

A harsh, cold breeze suddenly whipped through John and Elizabeth's clothing; making them both wrap up for warmth. A few people passed them by and gave them strange looks. Elizabeth noticed it and pointed it out to John. "We'll have to see about getting some new clothes soon," she yawned a bit in the middle of the sentence, "not to mention food and sleep. Going in between Greek and English is exhausting."

They started walking around the deck of the ship to see where they had landed. "At least we got out of our last adventure in one piece. A vacation at sea would do wonders right now. Although I wish that the sea was the one Atlantis is floating on."

"I've been thinking, in between all those life-and-death situations. What if we're still on Atlantis?"

John folded his arms to his chest. "How do you figure? Thirtieth century live action games, giant spiders and webs with healing capabilities, and the Trojan war? The last one, maybe..."

"The Ancients could have made technology to transport them to different time periods to study them, kind of like holodeck programs in Star Trek. Remember, they created personalities of historical figures. Maybe the Ancients did the same thing but on a larger, more interactive scale."

"How do you explain thirtieth century Earth, then?" John pulled her away from a couple of children running in their path.

"I have no idea." Elizabeth spotted the name of the ship on one of the life-rings. "Oh, no! John, look." She gripped his arm fiercely.

John turned and read out the name Elizabeth pointed out to him. "_RMS Titanic_… Oh shi..."

The sound of the ship's deafening horn drowned out his last word.


	5. Voyage of the Damned

**Passage through the Ages by Spirit of Chrysophylax**

_Chapter Five: Voyage of the Damned_

Elizabeth was unhappy about their temporary accommodation onboard the ship; not because it was for lower class passengers but the way they got the tickets, and she made sure John knew so. "Come on, Elizabeth, be grateful. I won that card game fair and square and you know it."

Being on the bottom bunk, Elizabeth turned round away from John to face the wall. John sighed and tossed his torn jacket and BDU vest on the end of his bed, since hers had taken residence on the door handle and chair. "It was either this or sleep out on deck in the cold, north Atlantic air."

When he got no answer, he stopped removing his t-shirt, turned round and looked down to see her snuggled up and sleeping soundly. "You're welcome," he said softly. Removing his pants, he laid them with the rest of his stuff and clambered onto his bed, being careful not to jog hers too much. The lower deck wasn't the best place to be, but it was better than nothing.

John unfolded the most recent newspaper he retrieved from a waste bin and began reading it. The good thing was, the fact the paper was still there, meant they can't be that far into the journey of this fateful voyage. The first thing he read was the date. "10 April 1912. Titanic's launch date... I'm guessing it's maybe the twelfth." He turned the page and continued reading.

-----

With the paper lying on his chest, John woke to the sound of the ship's horn. He yawned himself awake and stretched his arms, causing the bed to creak. He removed the paper and quickly looked underneath, to make sure he hadn't woken Elizabeth up, only to find she wasn't there.

Quickly he hopped off the bed and changed to go in search of her. Their radios, as they discovered, were useless and had to hide them anyway because of the technological anachronism they represented.

He was in the middle of getting his pants on when their cabin door opened and Elizabeth walked in carrying a handful of fruit.

She quickly swallowed a mouthful of the apple she had bitten off, blushing at the same time. She quickly apologized for walking in on him as he was getting changed. "Sorry, didn't know you were up."

John quickly did up his fly and scrutinized her. "Where have you been?"

"Getting breakfast, want some?" She handed him a banana whilst taking another bite of her apple.

He accepted the fruit and placed it on his bed while he finished getting changed. "You're perky this morning considering last night. How long have you been up?"

"Sorry, I should've warned you I'm an early-bird. Just an hour or two ago."

He noticed she wasn't wearing her BDU vest or jacket, and that wasn't at all surprising considering the state they were in. "Guess the next thing we need to do is get something new to wear with the money you won last night."

"There're a few shops near the top deck; I found them on the way to the restaurant."

"That's another thing – I don't like you wandering off on your own, especially without consulting me first. We know how easy it is for us to time-jump in different locations."

Elizabeth knew John was the ranking officer here and on Atlantis, but she wasn't military and hated taking orders. "I'll be careful, okay? I promise to be within running distance at all times."

Finished changing, John retrieved the fruit he was given and began peeling it. "Let's hope we don't jump again while we're separated."

-----

A Wraith, hungry, trapped like John and Elizabeth, and keeping to the shadows onboard the ship, lurked out of sight. Watching as passengers slowly woke up for the new day, it walked inconspicuously out onto the deck. He waited till he spotted his latest victim and followed him to quiet corner the ship, before feeding.

----

Having finished breakfast, Elizabeth showed John where the shops were. Like before, she tried not to stare at passersby, in case it drew attention to them. So far, just wearing pants and t-shirts seemed to have done the trick of passing off as third-class passengers.

Reaching the shop, it was still closed. "You'd think they would have a sign to say when they open."

Elizabeth ignored John as she looked at the dresses in the window. He spotted this and whispered to her, "I'd stick to jeans if I were you."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes and John watched her reflection in the window as she did so. She turned round and indicated their surroundings. "John, look around you. Can you see any women wearing jeans?"

"Well, you'll need something tangible to wear at least. What about that one?"

She looked at the red dress he pointed at, and her fingers automatically covered her eyes and she whipped them down her face shaking her head at the same time. "I'm not Rose from the movie _Titanic_, John, and sadly you are not Leonardo DiCaprio."

"Shouldn't you be in the boiler room, sir?"

At the sound of the unexpected and very British voice, John and Elizabeth whirled around and saw who seemed to be the shopkeeper unlocking the door.

Elizabeth couldn't help but laugh; of all the things he could've said, that hadn't come to mind.

John immediately put on an innocent look. "No, sir. I'm just a passenger looking for something new to wear."

The man eyed them suspiciously as he took in their appearance before widening the door for them. "Then by all means, come in."

John was about to follow him, but Elizabeth pulled him back and whispered in his ear. "Ladies first."

John flashed a smile and complied with her wish, waving his hand in the direction of the door.

"Good sir, my lady, are you perhaps looking for anything specific?"

John didn't get a chance to answer him, because Elizabeth had beaten him to it. "Just something simple to wear, please." She sampled the feel of the red dress John had suggested.

The shopkeeper spotted this and pounced straight away. "Ah, that's an excellent choice, Madame. If you wish to try it on, you may do so through there."

Elizabeth followed the direction she was pointed to and saw a small cubical with a drawn curtain. "Some things never change," she mused quietly.

"Excuse me, Madame?" asked the confused shopkeeper.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I was just thinking out loud."

"No harm in trying it," encouraged John in an attempt to get rid of Elizabeth, so he could secretly pick out his own suit.

Giving in, she accepted the offer to try it on.

----

Back on Atlantis, Rodney had returned to the control room and began work to gather more information regarding the room John and Elizabeth had discovered.

He was completely baffled when he found no records that it had existed. "Hello, what have we here?"

Hidden deep within the memory core of the terminal he was working on was an encrypted file; Rodney worked his magic to retrieve and decrypt it. It wasn't long before he was successful in doing so. He found data recorded in Ancient, and there was a video log recorded. Needless to say Rodney opened it up and ran a decryption on it, so it came out in English.

The face which appeared looked like the description of Janus given to them by the older Weir. _"Second time-travel experiment proved unsuccessful partially due to Wraith intervention._

"_The experiment was beginning to show signs of progress. I was able to adapt a room here in Atlantis, and using our knowledge of Time Travel, I succeeded in introducing a stable time-portal within a field, a field that could only be stretched within the boundaries of that room._

"_The introduction of the field was to ensure time didn't seep into our reality when that portal opened; it was to remain within the confines of that room._ _The portal is invisible to the naked eye, but it acts like the Accretion Disc of a black hole. The hand panels act as a magnet for the gravity to pinpoint once they've been activated._

"_During a Wraith suicide strike, the gravity field became unstable; the weapons-fire from the darts caused fluctuations in that field; it increased due to the strain of attacks._ _This happened during the middle of an experiment._

"_Three Wraith darts were in the vicinity of the portal. Before I could reach the panels to shut the portal down it was too late; they became trapped. Even from the outside, the walls didn't protect them from getting caught in the field._

"_I can only hope now that they are trapped in a time where they cannot do any harm. The damage to the machine was already done; a spike in the energy output caused an overload in the system's mainframe and caused a catastrophic time dilation in this room. Before I could seal the room completely an explosion from beyond the field's boundaries ripped through, causing the door to buckle._

"_The machine has been declared unsafe for further research and the project has been shut down. All information regarding the project was to be wiped by order of the high council, but I feared should that room ever be uncovered again, this information could prove useful, so I hid this and the room from the others in hope it would be of use should anyone stumble across either."_

Rodney's eyes widened in awe; he couldn't believe what he had just seen and it left plenty of questions playing on his mind.

Radek also wore the same expression on his face, having too watched the recording. "Where does that leave Major Sheppard and Doctor Weir?"

"If they were stupid enough to activate those panels, they could be anywhere in space and time."

------

Elizabeth was impressed by John's choice of clothing when he came out of their cabin; he wore a black suit, white shirt and a black bow tie to match. "Very smart, certainly worth waiting out in the corridor for." A smirk played on her lips.

John couldn't help but gawp at Elizabeth's long red dress; more to the point, he couldn't believe she actually went along with the idea. "You look just as beautiful. Red is definitely your color."

"Major, I do believe that was a compliment."

John could feel his face turn scarlet. He offered his right arm and she slipped hers through it and together they walked up to the top deck. "At least it'll be easier to mix in now."

Further down the corridor the Wraith had been watching them; squinting his eyes gleefully he waited till they left before entering their cabin. The minute he was in, he began searching through their belongings.

Picking up John's BDU vest off the bed, he rummaged through its pockets and came across the earpiece, a device he knew didn't belong in this time. He was right, he found the ones he could sense were different, strangers who shouldn't belong in this time. Hissing, he clasped it in his hands and stealthily followed after them.

-----

Having reached the top deck, they were surprised to find it partially empty. For some unknown reason John couldn't shake the nagging feeling something was wrong.

----

As they sat on a deck bench overlooking the ocean, Elizabeth couldn't help but notice John's outward expression and quietness. "Everything all right, John? You seem a little distant this morning."

John quickly snapped out of his dazed state and turned to face her. "I'm fine, just thinking of home."

"Atlantis?"

He nodded. "I hate to admit it, but I miss everyone there."

"Even Rodney?"

"Even Rodney."

Elizabeth could tell that wasn't the only thing on his mind; his eyes kept searching the ship every so often, like they were now. "Hey." She nudged him a little on the arm to stop his mind from wandering. "You've still got me."

John placed his arm around the back of her shoulders and pulled her in closer for comfort. "I hope it stays like this. I don't know what I'll do if I lost you too."

Elizabeth responded to the unexpected move by resting her head on his shoulder. "Do you think we'll ever find our way home?"

"I hope so Elizabeth… I hope so."

They sat in silence for a few minutes, before Elizabeth couldn't deal with guilt hanging over her shoulder any longer. "I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what?"

"For getting us into this mess. If I'd listened to you in the first place we…"

John put a finger on her lips to quiet her. "Hey. This was nobody's fault, okay? Neither of us knew this would happen."

"Still, if I'd listened to you in the first place, instead off blundering around regardless…" A woman's scream attracted their attention and both John and Elizabeth bolted from the seats to see what the problem was.

They found the young women near the back of the ship, staring at one of the lifeboats. John moved over to her and placed both hands on her shoulders to snap her out of a scared state and the woman pointed behind him at the boat.

John looked and it wasn't long before he spotted what she had seen. A hand, more like a corpse's hand, stuck out from under the cover. Elizabeth noticed this and gasped in shock.

Elizabeth saw John was about to investigate and held him back. "John, maybe we should leave this to the crew."

John loosened Elizabeth's grip. "I need to check this out." He indicated to the scared lady. "Look after her, will you? I'll be right back."

John clambered up onto the lifeboat, being careful not to slip overboard the water. Once on top he carefully unhooked the cover and slowly pulled it back to reveal more of the corpse.

Automatically he covered his nose from the stench, and then he spotted what looked like a Wraith feeding mark on the dead man's chest. "It can't be."

John had seen enough and decided it was time for them to leave before the crew arrived. He jumped down onto the deck, quickly apologized to the lady for their haste and pulled Elizabeth away.

-----

A half hour later, John and Elizabeth had returned to their cabin. The minute he shut the door John leaned heavily against it.

"What was it, John? What did you see?"

"Looks like we might have a Wraith on our hands." It was then John noticed that various items had been moved from where he last left them. "I knew it."

He spotted his BDU vest draped over the bed, where the Wraith had left it and picked it up to see most of the pockets were open.

"What's wrong?" questioned Elizabeth as she watched John move items around.

"I'd say it's a good bet the Wraith knows about us too."

Not long after came a knock on their door. Elizabeth opened it ajar cautiously and peered round to see who it was.

There was a young officer waiting outside; he saw her face and spoke out. "Sorry to disturb you, Madame, but we have orders to search everyone's room and ask to see your boarding passes."

Elizabeth turned to face John, concern etched across her face. John quickly got to work hiding what he could which shouldn't be seen whilst Elizabeth kept the officer distracted. "May I ask why?"

"I'm not obliged to say, Madame."

John had no idea where to hide the BDU vests; their cabin was small after all. He quickly shoved what he could under the bunk bed and pulled Elizabeth's cover down slightly to hide it from view.

John then pulled out their boarding passes from under his pillow and whispered 'ready' to Elizabeth and she opened the door to let the officer in.

The officer took the passes from John's outstretched hand as he entered and looked them over carefully, reading the names printed on them and he knew straight away, something was amiss. "Where did you get these?"

"The normal way one would get them." answered John hurriedly.

"These were reported missing last night." Without waiting for a response from the passengers the officer began searching their room.

"What? They can't have been. We..." John's eyes widened in horror when the officer pulled back their bed covers and the lower one revealed what they were hiding.

"What on earth?" Pulling out his whistle, the officer turned back to face them. "Save your explanations for the Captain."

As the officer blew into his whistle to alert the crew, Elizabeth slapped John lightly on the shoulder and discreetly spoke to him. "I knew this wasn't a good idea."

----

"John, I warned you that betting with people half drunk wasn't a good idea."

"At least it made it easier to win the game."

As they walked though a corridor to reach the Captain's quarters, the lady they heard scream earlier on deck was being aided by members of the crew and walking towards them. She battled with hysterics trying to tell them what she saw. The minute John and Elizabeth walked past she pointed them out. "That's them." She frantically waved a finger at them, more specifically at John. "That man uncovered the body."

The officer escorting them from behind heard the lady call out; he stopped John and Elizabeth as the woman pointed him out again. "He was the one."

"One what?" Responded John innocently as she walked passed them, pretending not to know what she was on about.

"He probably killed the poor devil in that boat earlier and tried to hide the evidence, before you lot turned up."

John couldn't help but chuckle a bit; they were in so much trouble and decided to protest against it knowing the information was false. "She's delirious."

But the officer wasn't having any of it. "It would seem you two are in really big trouble."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes unbelievingly and leaned over to talk to John before they started moving again. "Next time I say this isn't a good idea, John, listen to me would you?"

Just as they reached the end of the corridor John suddenly felt a wave of nausea wash over him, he stopped walking to let it pass and with a warning tone, called Elizabeth's name.

She stopped with him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "What? What's wrong?"

"I think I'm starting to sense the time-jumps coming, like now."

As if to prove his point, Elizabeth watched as the officer escorting them disappeared. But before she could say anything the ship rocked slightly and they both heard a loud scraping noise along the ship's hull. _It's jumped to midnight, April 14__th__,_ John thought instantly.

Before Elizabeth could register what happened, the Wraith appeared from nowhere and slammed his hand forcefully into her chest, propelling her back down the corridor away from John.

Hearing her scream, John quickly regained his own senses, and ignoring the Wraith, he moved to help Elizabeth.

When John reached her, she was coughing badly from the attack and struggling to stand back up. "Where did he come from?" She asked as John persuaded her to stay seated.

John heard the Wraith hiss behind him and spun round as he spoke. "Atlantis, no doubt," the Wraith hissed. He opened his palm and showed John the earpiece he found in their cabin. "And you shall tell me how to return."

------

Elsewhere on the ship, the fate of the Titanic was becoming more surreal to the officers and crew, although the passengers hadn't yet been made aware of the situation facing them.

-----

The Wraith, by this time, had John pinned up against the wall by his throat. "Tell me, human, how do I return? I know you're from a different time; I sensed it the moment you arrived."

Despite the pain in her chest Elizabeth scurried to her feet and tried to pull the Wraith off him. "We don't know how to get back, let him go!"

Hissing to her words, the Wraith turned to face her. "I do not believe you."

Whilst distracted, John took the opportunity and punched the Wraith in the face the minute he turned back to face him.

A passenger in her late thirties walked in on them and screamed the minute she saw the creature staggering back from John, having let him go.

John yelled at the woman starring at them. "This isn't a dream, run! Get to a lifeboat."

The woman complied without question and ran back the way she came, looking for another way to reach the deck.

Before leaving, John pushed the disorientated Wraith against the wall from behind him and then grabbed Elizabeth's hand; knowing the vibration they felt was the ship hitting the iceberg. "Us too, come on."

As Elizabeth tried to keep up, she tried to get John's attention. "John, something's wrong. This is the first time we've time-jumped forward in the same location."

"Doesn't mean it won't be our last."

-----

Up on deck John was trying to persuade Elizabeth to get into one of the boats, which were being prepared for evacuation. The passengers had only recently been informed of the incident and the deck was slowly starting to fill up.

As the boat they stood by filled up, Elizabeth refused to get onboard when she heard the man calling for only woman and children. "I won't leave you John."

"You have too. Listen, with any luck we'll time-jump before this ship goes down." Elizabeth was about to interrupt him to tell him that it was a good enough reason for her to stay, as John pushed her further towards the lifeboat and stopped her from doing so. "I love you too much to take that chance, letting you drown with me."

This took Elizabeth by surprise, she knew there was a close bond between them, but he never let on how he really felt. She didn't have time to express her feelings nor did John have time to kiss her goodbye for she was lifted onto the lifeboat by one of the crew. "Come on, Madame, before you get left behind."

The Wraith appeared from nowhere as this happened and Elizabeth saw him come up behind John getting ready to strike him down. It surprised her that the Wraith bothered to show himself like this, having stayed hidden for so long. She screamed out his name to warn him, but that scream was drowned out by a load of others.

Suddenly there was a tug on the boat and she felt it being lowered, as the officer gave out urgent orders for the crew to do so.

Elizabeth started to panic; she couldn't leave John to fight the Wraith on his own. Without even a second thought, Elizabeth got out of her seat and started to move towards the other side to reach the ship, only the boat jerked and someone who was already standing in front ploughed into her, causing her to lose balance and fall over the other side of the boat into the freezing water below.


	6. Back Home?

**Passage through the Ages by Spirit of Chrysophylax**

_Chapter Six: Back Home?_

John found himself struggling with the Wraith amongst trees and shrubbery. The Wraith had taken him by surprise on the ship, grabbing him from behind rather than a frontal attack. But what really concerned him right now was the apparent fate Elizabeth. He had seen her go overboard just before the Wraith took hold of him around the neck, and with water that cold he feared the worst.

He only hoped the time-jump occurred for all of them; he only wished it hadn't happened for the Wraith who was already way past aggravating and shooting straight towards totally pissing John off.

The Wraith had John pinned again, only this time up against a tree. "Pathetic human, it'll take more then a punch to stop me from getting the truth out from you."

"I thought you lost your touch." Joked John sarcastically as he scrabbled at the Wraith's leathery black coat.

"You know, it's been some time since I last fed," taunted the Wraith. "You will make a perfect meal if you do not tell me what I want to know."

John decided to annoy him. "Didn't your mum ever tell you it's rude to play with your food?"

The unmistakable sound of a Jumper roared in the distance, making both John and the yet-unnamed Wraith lose momentary interest in the other. "Maybe they can help us," John suggested, hoping the people flying the Jumper were ones he knew. The spark of optimism that they were back in John's own time flared.

"I will ask just as soon as I make your body a dry husk." The Wraith pulled back his hand to feed on John. Before he was able to slam it into the major's chest a large snake like creature dropped out of the tree onto the Wraith's back.

Hissing, the Wraith let go of John; spun round, he grabbed it in one move and squeezed it around the neck effectively killing it.

In the meantime John had his eyes closed, waiting for the kill. When nothing happened after a few seconds he opened one eye, to see the Wraith killing the snake. Taking the opportunity, he slipped around him and out of his sight into the trees after the Jumper.

Annoyed, the Wraith tossed the snake into the tree and loped after his difficult snack.

John knew the Puddle Jumper had landed near the edge of the forest and ran as fast as he could towards that location, hoping to reach it before the Wraith caught up with him.

----

The Puddle Jumper sat on the beach and more people from the Athosian settlement had gathered around it to see if the story they heard was true: that the leader of expedition from Earth, whom had been missing for many years, had at last returned home.

Major Lorne was overseeing the mission to the mainland and he and his team were the first to disembark from the Puddle Jumper, followed by Carson with his.

At a quick pace Carson moved towards the frail person lying on the beach facing away from them. Once he reached her, he looked over to see if it was the person the Athosian people claimed it to be and his heart leapt for joy. He called out to Lorne, "It is Elizabeth!"

Without wasting a moment Lorne pulled out his radio to contact Atlantis and told them that it was her and within seconds he could hear a chorus of cheers on the receiving end.

Having checked she was okay, Carson carefully moved her away from the lapping water at her feet, whilst trying to ignore the crowd around him.

He looked at a member of his staff who was holding a bundle of blankets and he took them from him and wrapped Elizabeth up to keep her warm.

Having reached Carson, Lorne placed a hand on his shoulder to grab his attention. "Is it safe to move her?"

Carson moved a stray strand of wet hair from her face before facing Lorne. "Aye, it is."

"Let's move out then."

----

John's heart raced as he rushed towards the Puddle Jumper's location. At best he was a good fifteen minutes away and the Wraith was five minutes behind him. But that soon changed when he saw the Jumper take off and disappear into the distance. John paused to catch his breath, cursing himself inwardly for not reaching it in time.

John could hear the Wraith gaining on him, and now it was a case of kill or be killed.

----

Elizabeth slowly opened her eyes as voices flooded into her ears. Trying to clear her vision, she attempted to see where she was, only to catch sight of a few children who looked Athosian and the she became vaguely aware of the fact that she was lying on wet sand before passing out again.

The second time Elizabeth awoke was to the sounds of machines beeping next to her and a couple of voices, one of which sounded familiar

She tried to turn her head towards them but found it a bit difficult for her neck felt stiff; eventually she managed and let out a shallow hello to grab their attention. She recognized Carson but not the person standing in the room talking to him. She couldn't believe she was back home.

Now knowing she was in the infirmary on Atlantis, she began to wonder if all this had been a simple dream – or a nightmare.

Carson heard the soft moan behind him; quickly he turned round to see Elizabeth was awake and he walked up to her bedside. "Welcome back, my lass. How do you feel?"

Elizabeth found it hard to move and when she looked, she could see why: layers of bed sheets covered her and they'd been tucked in tightly to keep her warm. But the answer to Carson's question was simple, not that it was the right answer. "John?" Her eyes started searching the room, to see if she could spot him in another bed, but couldn't. "Where's John?"

Sadness filed Carson's eyes and he looked at the person standing next to him.

"Doctor Weir, my name is Major Lorne. I would like to ask you a few questions."

The whole set-up was wrong. "You're not from the expedition," she stated quietly; she'd never seen him in her life and she had made it a point to at least meet everyone in the expedition.

"Not the one you may remember, no." He paused and looked at the Scottish doctor before turning back to her, having been given permission to proceed with the questioning. "Doctor Weir, what happened to you? Where have you been after all this time?"

Confusion spread across her face.

Carson spoke to try and clear things up for her. "Rodney half expected to find a couple of corpses in the room when he was finally able to turn the time-machine off. Instead the Athosian people found you washed up on the mainland half frozen to death. None of us could believe it when they radioed us."

"How long have I been gone?"

Carson grimaced, his gaze falling to the floor. "Almost three years." He coughed, glancing at Lorne. "This is certainly not the Atlantis you and Major Sheppard set out to explore so long ago, Elizabeth. I expect you'll be in for several...surprises."

Elizabeth fell silent, a look of shock on her face. _Three years? But it can't have been more than a week! _

Rodney padded quietly into the infirmary, hands thrust into his pockets; Elizabeth noticed grey hairs on his temples and a few lines at the corners of his eyes. But something more than cosmetic was different about him; just from the way he walked and held himself Elizabeth knew Rodney was a different, changed man. He was softer, less abrasive.

The scientist felt a knot form in his chest. All this time he had blamed himself for the incident; he had told Liz and John it was safe to venture into the lower parts of the city and as it turned out it wasn't. He thought he had gotten over that guilt but he could feel it flooding back again.

He paused halfway to her bed; Elizabeth could see the regret in his eyes and could tell he was having second thoughts about coming to see her, so she beckoned him over with the wave of a hand to encourage him, letting a soft smile play across her lips.

Rodney started wringing his hands and shook his head; anxiety had taken over. Sam Carter was right... he wasn't ready to see her. "I can't do this," he breathed, shooting Elizabeth a look full of pure sorrow. "I'm sorry." Ignoring the bemused looks on Carson's and Lorne's faces, he quickly turned on his heels and ran from the room.

Automatically, Elizabeth started to remove her covers to run after him, but wires from the machines prevented her from doing so and she silently cursed under her breath.

Carson and Lorne quickly rushed to Elizabeth's aid to stop her from getting out the bed; she had managed to stand up but her legs gave out almost immediately. Lorne was able to grab her before she fell onto the floor and helped her back in.

"Easy, love," cautioned Carson, "your body needs time to recover from the freezing temperatures it experienced when you were in the water. It'll be a while before you get full feeling back."

"Thank you, Carson, but I need to see Rodney. I need to let him know it wasn't his fault."

Carson shook his head. "All in good time, right now you need to get some rest. He's blamed himself for three years, and it'll take a bit of time for him to adjust. At least he's got Jennifer to help him cope."

Elizabeth paused. "Jennifer?"

Lorne glanced at the doctor and stepped forward to explain. "Doctor, I'm going to tell you something that will likely be very unbelievable. And this has to do with Jennifer. About two years after you disappeared, Atlantis had a case of exploding tumors." At the look on her face he rushed on. "Well – and here's the unbelievable part – Carson Beckett died in the explosion after transporting a surgically removed tumor too late. In the weeks after his...death...the Daedalus arrived with a new batch of members, and the young doctor Jennifer Keller was among them. She became the new CMO, and since then she's taken interest in McKay, though no one knows why."

Elizabeth tried to interrupt him. "Carson died??"

The Scot rolled his eyes and sighed.

Lorne began speaking again. "The original Carson was cloned about six or eight months before by a Wraith hybrid named Michael. Our Carson," he said, gesturing to the Scot, "is the clone. Now Dr. Weir, everything else will be explained after you get some rest."

Carson stepped forward and practically shoved Lorne out of the way. "I had a bit of trouble adjusting to the idea that there were two of me too, my dear. It gets easier if you don't think about it."

She let him pull the covers back over and she snuggled up tightly to keep warm. Deciding to not ask questions, she said, "So long as I don't time-jump while I'm sleeping. I don't think I want to wake up in front of an angry wolf or another giant spider."

"Time-jump?" questioned Lorne.

"Giant spider?" asked Carson at the same time.

"It was the only possible explanation we could come up with. You should have seen some of the places we visited." Elizabeth yawned as she ran off the list. "Future Earth, Ancient Greece just before the start of the Trojan War, some really cold, icy place with giant spiders like Shelob and Aragog, and the RMS Titanic, all before stopping off here."

Baffled, Carson and Lorne looked at each other.

"That reminds me," continued Elizabeth sleepily, "I have to ask Rodney where that lightning bolt came from, and why there was a Wraith on the Titanic."

Elizabeth could feel her eyelids getting heavy as she relaxed more. "Also, we need to find John, he's out there somewhere and having seen me go overboard he'll probably think I'm dead."

"We only found you; there was no sign of John." Responded Lorne, only to find Elizabeth had fallen asleep. He looked over at Carson. "Did she say there was a Wraith on the Titanic?"

Ignoring his question, Carson could see the look of curiosity in Lorne's eye. "Do you think John could still be out there, Evan?"

But Lorne didn't answer. Instead he disappeared out the room at a fast pace and Carson took that as a yes.

----

John had continued to elude the Wraith as he made his way to the location where the Puddle Jumper appeared to have landed.

There weren't many objects around he could use as a weapon to defend himself. The best John could do was snap off an over-hanging branch that had a sharp point on the end.

John had reached the beach, which was now empty of people but he noticed it had been in use recently due to the number of foot prints. To the left of him was the landing pattern of a Puddle Jumper.

Making his way towards it he spotted the Wraith towards the tree line and he took up a defensive position.

----

After a few exchanges of blows, the Wraith was able to knock the stick out of John's hand and he shoved the major into the shallow water.

John spat out a mouth full of blood and sand then wiped his sleeve once across his face to be rid of the rest before standing back up.

Ahead of them, the noise of the Puddle Jumper could soon be heard, but the Wraith ignored it.

Lorne saw the Wraith from inside of the Puddle Jumper and the minute he was close enough he fired a drone at him.

As John picked himself up out of the water he caught sight of the impact and knew the Wraith was finished. He could see the drone had knocked the Wraith far back and a large fireball replaced his location.

As the flames and smoke cleared Lorne set the Puddle Jumper down onto the beach, close to where it was last parked.

The hatch soon opened and John cautiously moved forward to greet whomever it was saved him. Only to stop dead in his tracks when he recognized the man who started talking to him. "John Sheppard!"

"Evan? When did you come to Atlantis? I thought you were still on SG-11!"

"A few months after you and Elizabeth disappeared."

"Months?"

Lorne made a face. "Actually, John, it's been close to three years."

Sheppard opened and closed his mouth like a goldfish. "Three years? It's only been about a week!"

"Rodney will explain. By the way, Elizabeth's on the base."

John smiled. "She's alive?"

Evan nodded. "We came by here earlier when the Athosians told us they found her washed up by the sea. When she woke, she told us you might be around as well. Speaking of which, how the hell did that Wraith get onto Atlantica without a Dart or a Hive? The satellites have been silent for over a year."

John wasted no time getting to the Puddle Jumper and Lorne followed him in. "He was on the Titanic with us. He managed to latch on to that last time-jump."

"It would seem I arrived just in time to keep you from getting sucked dry."

"I'm grateful. Just don't rub it in. I have a reputation to uphold."

**----**

Having stepped into the infirmary, John's eyes immediately fell on Elizabeth's sleeping form.

Carson saw him and walked over to welcome him home. "It's good to see you, John."

John gave Carson a brief hug. "Thanks, Doc, it feels good to be back."

John pulled a chair up and sat down by Elizabeth's bed. "How's she doing?"

Carson joined him only he stayed standing. "She is recovering fine, plenty of rest and warmth she'll be as right as rain in no time."

"No injuries from falling overboard?"

"Overboard?" questioned Carson.

"Yeah, she fell from one of the lifeboats of the Titanic – or rather she was knocked overboard. I seriously thought she was dead."

"So that's how she ended up in the water? We never got a chance to ask her before she fell asleep." Carson noticed the tenderness when John removed a lock of hair from Elizabeth's face. He soon decided to leave them be for a while.

----

After changing into a spare uniform and a short meet and greet an hour later, John found himself in one of the briefing rooms, surround by familiar faces. Colonel Carter had taken over as civilian leader after Elizabeth disappeared, which effectively cut short her SG-1 days. They all wanted to know where he and Elizabeth had been the last three years and most of all he wanted to know why they experienced what they did.

Whilst taking down notes, John noticed Rodney deliberately avoided eye contact as he spoke. "The minute we landed in Earth's future, we knew something was very wrong. We saw a Spitfire heading towards us, and it wasn't long after that we considered the possibility of time-travel."

Rodney jumped in to explain a few things. "The time-field was supposed to act as a form of protection barrier from the time-elements leaked from the portal; but since the incident I ran some test and have deduced that during the Wraith attack that barrier and the time-portal had fused together. I'm sure it's the combination of both, which was causing you two to continually jump through time."

"Wraith attack?" questioned John. "Is that why we ran into one of them on the Titanic?"

Sam joined in on the conversation. "Janus was conducting a Time-Travel experiment and it would seem the Wraith attacked this city during a critical stage. That in turn caused damage to the machine and the project was closed down."

"Janus cleverly managed to hide the information into an Atlantis data storage system. I found it by chance while looking for clues to your disappearance," Rodney commented.

"Okay." John tried to make eye contact with Rodney, but he still refused to look directly at him. "So you've shut the machine off and that's stopped it right?"

"Yes, I was able to turn it off three years after you disappeared – and, well, you could say that was the end of the line for you two."

"Basically it dropped us off at the end of the tunnel."

"Yes. After running a diagnostic after you disappeared, I noticed the activation panels recorded your hand print and it seems that the Time-Portal locks onto the hand signals. So it activated when either you or Elizabeth stuck your hand on something you weren't – "

Sam interrupted to keep Rodney from blaming John. "The machine, however, didn't lock onto the Wraith, so they were spread out across time and space.

"Wait," interrupted John. "That can't be right; one of them transported with me."

"Probably because in was in direct contact with you," pointed out Rodney.

John didn't like the sound of this. "How many Wraith, exactly, are we talking about?"

"We don't know for sure," answered Rodney. "We guess a minimum of three or four Darts were caught in the field."

"So they could be anywhere across time and space? Even on Earth?"

Rodney nodded solemnly to John's question. "The device is turned off now, so we can't do much about…"

"Yes we can," John said over Rodney. "Can you turn the device back on?"

"You've got to be kidding! It took me three years to turn it _off_, and right after you show up again you want me to turn it back _on_? Not to mention the exponential power requirements! That damned field was a continuous tax on the Zed Pee Em, John. Do you have any idea how much that thing has taken out of me?"

"I'm not kidding, Rodney. Listen, this is your time, not Elizabeth's and mine. I for one want to return to the time I left and the only way for that to happen is if we continue to time-jump. Eventually it'll take us back to where we started."

"But…"

"Also, if there are Wraith out there, they should be stopped before they do more damage than they already have."

"Elizabeth wouldn't agree to this."

"Maybe not at first. But look at it this way – I've been with her for three more years than you have. Can you really say you know what she would or wouldn't do? I know she won't risk everyone here for the sake of a few years. But we don't have much of a choice. The Wraith must be stopped."

"Stop bickering, you two!" interrupted Sam. "Until Doctor Weir is better, you two aren't going anywhere and you'll have to make sure you have her consent as she will be jumping with you. Things need to be put right."

"You agree, then?"

"Yes, only because I've been in worse situations than this yet we always managed to emerge for the better. That and the IOA believes it is in everyone's best interest that these Wraith are stopped and the time-line restored."

John started to rise from his chair. "I guess I'll go see if Elizabeth is awake and tell her the news."

"Sheppard," called Rodney as John reached the exit. For the first time since their return, Rodney looked John straight in the eye. "If she agrees, I'll need to go over a number of things with you regarding the situation."

John nodded and left the room.

----

Waiting by her bed, John watched Elizabeth sleep for twenty minutes, up until the point her eyes flickered open. He waited till she looked at him before pasting a natural grin on his face. "Miss me?"

Elizabeth pasted on a smile of her own before reaching up to hug him. "More so then ever before." Slowly letting go she looked him in the eye. "What you said earlier. Did you mean it?"

"That I love you?" he asked, and Elizabeth nodded. "I wouldn't have said it if I didn't mean it."

"We'll have to talk about this later on, like where we're going to go from here."

John started to count on his fingers teasingly. "Well I was thinking along the lines of…"

Elizabeth slapped him on the arm before he could continue. "So, flyboy, what did I miss when we got separated?"

John quirked an eyebrow at the given name. "Flyboy? Has a nice ring to it, especially coming from you."

Elizabeth could see a glint of eagerness in his eyes and moved herself into a more comfortable position. "Don't flatter yourself."

"If I were you, I'd get as much rest as possible. We'll be moving out as soon as you're better."

Elizabeth almost did a double take having straightened her pillow. "Moving out?"

"According to McKay we have Wraith to hunt down and the time-line needs to be restored, which means we need to return to our own time."

"Is that possible?"

"I don't know. I'll have to ask McKay when he comes in."

"No other alternatives?"

"Don't seem to be."

Rodney walked into the room holding a tablet computer. "Are you two ready for me to explain more about the machine's situation?"

John turned to see him hovering from a distance. "Just the man. But we can't talk to you easily if you're standing in the middle of the room."

Acknowledging this, McKay moved towards them, stood next to John and immediately started talking. "Radek and I checked the time machine and we believe it can be reactivated, but you will be playing Russian roulette with it because I can't set coordinates. It'll be random jumps like before."

John didn't like the idea of jumping into unknown territory all the time. "Can you adjust the machine to compensate for this?"

"Count yourself lucky we can get it working at all. Like I said, it took a lot to shut the thing down in the first place."

Elizabeth noticed the tension in Rodney's tone of voice. "Is there something that will tell us when we're about to time-jump?"

John was sure he sensed the last jump and brought it to their attention. "I'm pretty certain I sensed the last time-jump seconds before it hit us."

"Huh." Rodney weighed the possibilities before coming up with one. "It could be because you're the only one with the ATA gene and since the device was created by the Ancients; it has your hand print and the two could be connected."

"I wonder then why it wouldn't let John understand the Greek?" asked Elizabeth.

"Greek? Oh, right – Troy. Wait, you understood it?"

Elizabeth nodded. "It didn't have anything to do with the machine, Rodney, I took Greek in college."

Rodney paused to run through information on his data pad. "Okay, I might not be able to help you with regards to localizing time-jumps, but I might be able to set something up which will determine where and when you are."

"That would certainly be of great help. When will you have it ready?" asked John.

"In about thirty-six hours if Radek doesn't mess anything up, and you should be good to go, providing Carson signs your release."

"Are you that keen to get rid of us, Rodney?" asked John with one corner of his lips quirked up.

Rodney shot a glance at John. "What? No, why would you think of such a thing? I'll make it longer if you want me to. That's never a problem."

Rodney turned to leave before waiting for an answer, but Elizabeth stopped him. "Rodney, wait."

He turned back round when called. "What?"

"I know you probably feel some guilt over what happened to us. I just wanted you to know it wasn't your fault. At best it was my own fault that got us into this mess."

Rodney was unsure what she was talking about.

Elizabeth noticed this and tried to explain to him. "I ignored John's advice to stay out the room while he checked it out and I blundered in regardless."

Rodney shook his head. "Doesn't matter, I'm the one who said it was safe and let you two go down there in the first place."

"You can't be right all the time McKay," said John. "These things happen and we don't blame you for it."

Rodney nodded apologetically before leaving the room.

**----**

Having rested and suited up with new reserves of supplies, John and Elizabeth found themselves back in the room in which they had started their timeless journey.

As John checked he had everything Rodney and Sam came in with two bags of items. "What's all this?"

"Provisions. You know, food. Ronon could eat all of this in one sitting." Rodney handed one each to them.

"Thought you might need them," added Sam.

Letting the strange name go unquestioned, Elizabeth accepted hers and immediately felt the heavy weight of it. "You didn't put a Jumper in here, did you Rodney?"

"Very funny, though that would make it easier for you. Just a few changes of clothes, food, and extra medical supplies. Oh and I have this." Rodney pulled out a watch from his pocket and handed it to John.

John took it and looked at it like it was a new toy. "How will this help us?"

"The watch should be able to differentiate where you are location-wise." Rodney started showing them the various points of the watch. "If you're on Earth, the time element should set itself to the correct time and date."

"And if we're not?"

"The time element won't activate."

Just as Elizabeth was putting on her backpack she remembered something from one of their previous adventures and interrupted Rodney with his work. "Rodney, before you turn that terminal back on you wouldn't happen to know how a lightning strike would appear from nowhere on a sunny day?"

Rodney had totally forgotten about the lightning strike and almost choked on the fact. "We had a storm here not long after you two disappeared – a strike broke through into this room and vanished."

"It could be possible that the lightning was powerful enough to break through the field and into the Portal," suggested Sam. The Colonel stood in front of John and pulled another item out of her jacket. She handed it to the Major. "Take this."

John took the Life-Signs-Detector from Sam's hand and turned it over. "Thanks, but I've still got one."

"This one has some extra features: the dots will be blue if human, red if Wraith, and green if it's an animal larger than a small border collie."

John smiled. "That's cool. Who came up with that?"

Sam whistled innocently.

Rodney continued to turn the device back on.

"Well, however that lightning strike happened, it saved my life," finished Elizabeth.

Sam nodded to the outcome and told them a bit more about the Wraith. "Don't forget a maximum of four Wraith are out there somewhere, so keep the LSD with you at all times."

"Three Wraith," corrected Rodney. "They got one already don't forget."

"I stand corrected. Three."

"Don't worry, we'll watch ourselves," answered John confidently. "Thanks to Sam's new toy."

Suddenly the room lit up more brightly and Rodney rubbed his hands together. "Okay. I think we're set to go."

John then looked at Rodney and nodded confirmation that they we're ready.

----

John checked the watch McKay had given them when they found themselves in unfamiliar territory, standing on grass surrounding by the odd building and lots of greenery. Elizabeth looked at John when he tapped the glass covering on the dials of his watch. "Not working?"

"It's working, just no change in time-zones. Guess we're not on Earth."

"What about the LSD Colonel Carter gave you?"

John tapped a button and the screen lit up automatically, showing only two small blue dots. "Nope, no Wraith in sight. Just us on the scope."

Elizabeth looked up at the sunny sky and could see the sun was starting to set. "Maybe we should start making preparations for camp."

With John agreeing to the idea they started to look for a location to set up for the night.

Unknown to them one vine of many covering an old building started to move towards them until it reached the end of the shadow it was in.


End file.
